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Neurodiversity Awareness/Appreciation

Monday, April 22, 2013

I've always said, "I'll run when zombies are chasing me!"

Is this what zombies actually look like? Super gross!

See, I've always hated running. With a passion. As a kid, we were forced to run the mile twice a year... plus we had to practice for it ahead of time... in gym class. I dreaded it. I got out of breath too fast. I was not an overweight child or particularly out of shape... I rode my bike all the time at home. But for some reason I just couldn't run. By the time I was in junior high I just gave up and started walking the mile "run." The agony of running just wasn't worth it! The PE teachers... always overweight women with smokers' voices who somehow looked kind of greasy and unwashed... would frown at me. But I didn't care!
And once I graduated high school, I thought, "I will never run again! Unless someone is chasing me." And I never did.
I didn't get my driver's license until I was 22, so for a long time my bicycle, and walking, were my main modes of transportation, which kept me pretty thin. For a while there I was all skin and bones! But after I got my driver's license I didn't have many reasons for physical activity, so I got more out of shape, and more overweight.
My mom is always telling me I'm fat. I think she's anorexic on my behalf. When I eat, for instance, a bowl of oatmeal, she says, :"That is enough for three people!" (Which I know isn't true, because I use the instructions on the box or can or whatever that round thing is that oatmeal comes in, and I make enough for one person, not three.) If I drink a glass of milk, she gasps and says, "You're drinking all that?" If we go out to dinner and I finish a whole cheeseburger, she'll say, "I can't believe you ate that whole thing!" and shake her head in disgust. She'll do things like, buy me a sleeveless shirt, and then when I wear it, say, "You shouldn't wear shirts like that. Nobody wants to see your big belly."
For the record, I am slightly overweight, but not really. Not enough that any doctor during a physical exam or anything else has ever mentioned it to me. I can look in the mirror and be more or less happy with my body. As far as my weight goes, anyways... my funny looking knees are another story! So aside from my mom's comments hurting my feelings a little, my weight doesn't worry me so much.
But here's what does worry me.
Type 2 diabetes, and heart attacks, run in my family, particularly for women. Women who carry most of their weight in their bellies (like me... I swear my legs have no meat on them at all, and I don't have enough of a butt to keep my pants up... my belly seems to hog all the fat from my entire body) are more at risk for those and other diseases.
So anyway. I heard some people talking about a phone app that helps you learn to run, so I did a search for it, which led me to a list of Couch To 5K apps, which led me to the ZOMBIES, RUN app!
In case you don't know about Couch To 5K training, basically it is a program designed to get people who hate running, and in some cases get very little physical activity at all, in shape to actually be able to run 5K. Which is 3.1 miles for you unknowledgeable people. (JK... I just found out right now by Googling it.) So you start off with 36 minute workouts that involve walking ten minutes, then running for one minute and walking for 15 seconds for ten intervals, and then walking again. Then the next week they get you so you are running a little more... like 20 seconds maybe. And so on and so on. Until soon you are running most, and then all, of the time! Plus most of the CT5K apps also play music from your phone, in the background.
Zombie Run is just like that, except there is a story going on. The story is that you are on some sort of team that fights zombies. At first you are just undergoing training so you can be faster, and then eventually (once you actually get used to running for more than 15 seconds at a time) the stories involve running from, or chasing, zombies! And supposedly there is a whole online network you can link up to where you can see how many zombies you got during your run and what supplies you gathered and stuff like that. I haven't figured that part out yet. I just finished my first run walk plus a total of one minute and 30 seconds of jogging today.
So far, I really like it! It was fun, and I felt good about myself afterwards! I would only do two things different: 1. Bring a water bottle, and 2. Wear some actual running shoes instead of my Converse sneakers. Tomorrow is my off day... as we runners know, you're only supposed to train every other day, so your muscles can recover on the off days... so I'm going to go use part of my tax refund to get me some better shoes!
Has anyone else tried a C25K program? If so, I'd love your comments and/or advice!
Signing off for now,
Angel the Alien, aka Angel the Zombie Fighter!

P.S. This is not, in any way, a sponsored post. I just don't think this blog is ready for that yet!

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